China's Chen storms back to snatch men's 67kg weightlifting gold at Tokyo Olympics

Chen Lijun celebrates his win in the men's 67kg weightlifting event on July 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)

TOKYO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese weightlifter Chen Lijun shrugged off a slow start to complete a comeback and win the men's 67kg gold at Tokyo 2020 here on Sunday.

Going into the clean and jerk with a six-kilogram deficit, Chen made the most of an Olympic record of 187kg in his second attempt to rally.

After securing a gold medal, Chen abandoned his chance of breaking the current world record of 188kg, though his winning total of 332kg was also a new Olympic record.

Luis Javier Mosquera Lozano of Colombia bagged silver with 331kg, with third place going to Italy's Mirko Zanni, who posted a total of 322kg.

Chen managed a 145kg on his first attempt, but failed in his two following attempts of 150kg and 151kg.

Lozano led the snatch section with 151kg, followed by Talha Talib from Pakistan (150kg) and South Korea's Han Myeong-mok (147kg).

After Lozano set his clean and jerk result at 180kg on his third attempt, Chen was well aware of the title-contending scenario, succeeding in his 187kg attempt to get the job done.